Book of Goodbyes
by authenticaussie
Summary: Wes isn't used to casual affection and the Time Force Rangers hand it out like candy. All of them, but Jen.


For the Time Force Rangers, kisses are like greetings.

Katie uses them like high fives, pressing kisses to her teammate's cheeks when they do something impressive (regardless, or perhaps, because of the fact they make Trip blush), Lucas kisses and winks whenever he manages to beat anyone, and even Trip trades forehead kisses with other members of their team when he wants to give comfort.

But Wes? Wes hasn't been kissed by anyone since the disastrous almost-date his dad sent him on a year ago, and he's certainly never been kissed platonically before. So when the Time Force Rangers - and their shifted social norms - come into his life, he finds himself on unsteady ground.

* * *

It gets even worse when he realises he likes Jen, because Jen's the only one who doesn't kiss.

It isn't that she minds it - if she minded it, then he's sure Trip and Lucas and Katie wouldn't get away with their casual affection - but she never takes the time to return the favour, only humming softly whenever her teammates press kisses to her skin. The first time Wes saw Lucas kiss Jen's cheek, his heart leapt from his stomach to his throat and then dropped straight down again. At that point, he thought he knew enough about them to know what was going on...but he didn't. Of course he didn't. How could he have known that Jen needed all the comfort she could get, after having left behind her fiance and the family they'd planned to start? How could he have realised that the Time Force Rangers were family, when his dad had never shown him comfort the way these four did?

Lucas kissing Jen had made nauseating, confusing jealousy rear its head, and that was probably what let him figure out he was pining, too. Even when he put the clues together - after he saw Trip and Katie bury Jen in a bear hug and Katie press kisses to Jen's face while the two of them laughed - the jealousy niggled at him like a loose tooth, and the pining didn't go away.

He knew he was part of their team the first time Trip pressed a kiss to his forehead and said, "Hush. She'll be alright. Don't worry." Drawbacks of living with a psychic, he supposed, and tried to stop following Jen with his eyes when she paced through the clock shop. Drawbacks of living with a psychic, he supposed, but a bigger drawback was probably that he wasn't oblivious. Lucas and Trip and Katie comforted each other and Wes with casual physical affection, draped over each other like cats whenever they came out of a battle smelling too much like smoke and sweat, but Jen...

Jen would have to be pulled into the pile, and she could never stay for long. She never kissed, not with the ease and frequency that the other Rangers pressed kisses to each other. Something itched under her skin, and he watched her and wondered why.

He watched her, and realised that she didn't kiss, but the team turned towards her all the same. She cupped Trip's cheeks whenever he pressed a kiss to her forehead, and let her hand rest on the back of Katie's neck whenever Katie kissed her cheeks. She ran her hand through Lucas' hair whenever Lucas leaned against her, and she was the only one that could get the team to sleep when homesickness made them ill and restless. Jen didn't kiss, but she showed her affection through tiny gestures, barely noticeable unless you were watching.

Wes watched, because it felt like he'd do something wrong, if he touched first. Wes watched, because he had no idea how to handle the affection the team gave so easily, and because he thought that if Jen started touching him as casually as she did the rest of their team, he'd probably combust. Wes watched, and the team slowly drew him into their lives, getting him adjusted to the first casual affection he'd felt since high school.

Trip and Lucas and Katie leave him nervous, but Jen's touches always made him bite his lip, touch-starved longing eating him up like a flood. He wanted to kiss her and make her smile, he wanted to kiss her and let her stop worrying about Ransik and the future and bills, he wanted to kiss her - but Jen didn't kiss, and Wes was too afraid. Too afraid, because maybe the team would find it normal, but terrifyingly, maybe they wouldn't. He kept his affection locked behind favours, secretly making life easier for his team by cleaning or doing jobs they never found time for, and tried to pretend he didn't dream about kissing Jen.

Then there was the future; the monsters, the future, the battle, the promise that they'd be safe if he sent them back to their own time, but that they'd never remember their time together as a family. There was Eric, defeated, and Ransik and the last stand, and then there was his team by his side and he knew they'd have to leave at the end of it all but he couldn't stop himself from demorphing and dragging them into a hug.

"I missed you guys," he mumbled, and nothing was scarier than what'd already happened that day, so he pressed a kiss to Katie's cheek to hear her laugh, and dragged Lucas in for a hug that crushed his ribs, and kissed Trip's forehead.

He stopped at Jen, because he knew the kiss he'd like to give her, knew the kiss he'd like to recieve, and knew she didn't kiss. She smiled at him, one side of her mouth wider than the other and the little gap in her teeth visible, and his stomach flipped.

"You're back," he said, because he couldn't think of anything else, and she stepped in closer and pressed a kiss to his mouth.

"Permanently," she said, while he tried to get his brain back into working order. "I'm hoping that's not a problem?"

He could feel the slow smile spreading into a beaming grin across his face, the flip-flop ecstatic jump of his heart, and let his fingertips rest on her hips. "No ma'am," he said, and heard her laugh. He saw her move forward and met her half-way, thanking every star he knew that Jen's problems with kisses had only extended to her fear of permanency, and that now she was staying-

Wes let out a breathless laugh when Jen pulled back and slid to attention again, trying to recapture the brain cells that'd been lost when she kissed him and wondering how she managed to look so effortlessly professional when his head was still reeling. "Civilians?" she asked, and he made an agreeable noise, nodding his head like that was somehow an answer to her question.

He shook his head to order his thoughts and smiled dopily at her. "Everyone's safe," he said. "I made sure of it before the battle. And I got all the breakables in the clock tower stored safely when everyone thought this wasn't gonna blow over."

"We'd hate to have you rearrange all the furniture to make room for Lucas' stage again," Jen said, and Wes stopped.

"I- what?" he said, and she smiled, pressing another kiss to his red cheeks.

"It's sweet," she said, and his heart skipped a beat. She'd watched him just like he'd watched her, and known what he'd been afraid of, just like he'd known what she had feared. He looked at her smile, at her 20th century clothes, at the lack of time portal popping into existence behind her, and let himself smile just like her.

If he hadn't known he was in love before, he thinks he would've just fallen.

* * *

**AN: Time Force is DEATH in terms of Jen/Wes like oh my god IDIOTS. SO I LET THEM KISS, AS THE TOKU GODS INTENDED**

**Anyway this was for a flash fic-a-thon and I watched Time Force when I was like...ten so like /wheezes.**

**Please review!**


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